Plans for a major new Liverpool city centre hotel could be given the green light tomorrow.
Liverpool Council's Planning Committee will meet to decide on plans that could see a 92-room hotel created in Castle Street. If approved, the hotel would be developed at 20-34 Castle Street, home to the former Parr Bank and then NatWest Bank.
The plans also include the potential to convert the building’s striking banking hall and former vaults into a restaurant and bar. The Castle Street building was built for the former Parr Bank from 1898 to 1901 and is grade II* listed. It was designed by Richard Norman Shaw, who was considered one of the leading architects of the 19th century.
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The building’s centrepiece is a circular banking hall, which has retained its grand pillars, dome and gold ceiling detailing throughout processes of modernisation.
The hotel plans have been put forward by JSM Company Group Developments which has carried out a wide range of developments across the city, including residential and leisure. The hotel and restaurant plans were originally submitted in August 2021 with the buildings being advertised on the market for a number of years after NatWest moved to its new premises on Church Street in 2017.
The application seeks full planning permission for the conversion of part of the ground flood and all of the upper floors and basement area of 20-26 Castle Street and all of the upper floors of 32-34 Castle Street from vacant offices. In total the hotel would be built over an area of 3,090 sq metres.
If approved, the hotel will be accessed from Castle Street through the building's main entrance or through a new entrance door within an existing opening in Nos 20-26, both of which will lead to a ground floor reception area. If approved, the development would add to the growing leisure and retail offer in the Castle Street area.
The buildings are at the centre of a food and drink hub in the centre of Liverpool, with a range of the city’s most popular bars and restaurants operating within viewing distance of the town hall. The banking buildings would be JSM’s second development on Castle Street having already completed a project on the floors above the Boots Pharmacy further down the street.
Planning officers are recommending the hotel plans are approved when the planning committee meets in Liverpool Town Hall tomorrow morning, subject to legal agreements with the developer.
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